HOUSTON, (Reuters) – The Houston office of the FBI is  seeking to identify victims in its criminal fraud investigation of  Stanford Financial Group and its affiliated companies, the agency  said yesterday.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last month accused  Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, his college roommate and three  Stanford companies of carrying out a “massive Ponzi scheme” over  at least a decade and misappropriating at least $1.6 billion of  investors’ money.

In its ongoing investigation “the FBI is seeking to gather  additional information from investors in order to identify victims  and determine the extent of any potential fraud,” the agency  said.